HCM 3006 W5 Assignment A New Marketing Opportunity
HCM 3006 W5 Assignment A New Marketing Opportunity
Explain which proposal best supports the marketing opportunities outlined by the firm’s CEO. In other words, does targeting one or the other group make sense in light of either of the proposals you have just drafted?
Decide which (if either) of the strategies should be a part of your marketing proposal. Explain why and be sure to address each of the following:
The opportunities available to the organization by marketing healthcare services to the mature marketplace and the opportunities available to the organization by marketing healthcare services to the international consumer.
How either or both of the opportunities compliment or conflict with the organization’s current marketing strategy.
What recommendations you would make to the CEO concerning the two proposals?
Analysis Types to Identify Market Opportunities
1. Consumer segmentation
To understand your demand, you must identify consumer segments that share common characteristics. These characteristics can be “hard” variables such as age, gender, place of residence, educational level, occupation and level of income or “soft” variables such as lifestyle, attitude, values and purchasing motivations.
Hard variables can help estimate the number of potential customers a business can have. For example, a nappies/diapers producer should know how many children under 3 years live in a certain country as well as the birth rate. Soft variables can help identify motivations that lead to purchasing decisions including price, prestige, convenience, durability and design.
An example of how segmentation can help identify market opportunities is Aguas Danone, a bottled water company in Argentina. Several years ago the company´s sales were falling and they were looking for a new product. Aguas Danone identified two drivers behind non-alcoholic drinks consumption: health and flavor. Bottled water was perceived as healthy but did not offer the attribute of good taste. Soft drinks and juices tasted good, but were perceived as highly caloric. The company realised there was an opportunity for healthy drinks offering both taste and flavour. As a result, they launched flavored bottled waters Ser with great success. According to data from Euromonitor International, Aguas Danone has been the leader of Reduced Sugar Flavoured Bottled Water in Argentina since launching in 2002, beating giants such as Coca Cola and Nestlé. As of 2016, Aguas Danone still had 57% off-trade value share of Reduced Sugar Flavoured Bottled Water as well.
2. Purchase situation analysis
Purchase situations must also be examined to uncover expansion opportunities. Questions to ask when reviewing purchase analysis are:
- When do people buy our product or service?
- Is it when they need it?
- Where do people make the purchase?
- How do they pay?
Looking at distribution channels, payment methods and all other circumstances that involve purchasing decisions can teach you how consumers buy and how you can position your product appropriately. Offering new shopping alternatives may bring new customers. For example, vending machines offering snacks like yoghurt and individual juices have been introduced in the hallways of the subway of Santiago de Chile, promoting on-the-go consumption.
Another aspect to explore is the acceptance of different means of payment. For example, Amazon recently launched Amazon Cash in the US, enabling consumers without credit cards to shop online by adding credit to their personal Amazon accounts.
3. Direct competition analysis
In addition to analysing demand and purchasing situations, it is important to analyse supply. Knowing the existing players in the market where you are competing or going to compete is important when evaluating opportunities. Relevant questions in this case are:
- What are the products and brands of our industry that are growing more significantly and why?
- What is their value proposition?
- What competitive advantage do we have over them?
For example, SKY airline, competing in the Chilean market against a notably positioned brand such as LAN, found there was an opportunity to differentiate itself with a low cost model, which until then had not existed in Chile. SKY lowered its costs, by eliminating complimentary food and beverages for all passengers during flights and in doing so lowered its ticket prices. This helped the company increase its share of carried passengers from 10% in 2008 up to 20% in 2017, according to Euromonitor International.